Love is a Fallacy, by Max Shulman, is very cute and humorous. The genres are comedy and realistic fiction. Although the diction used in the work is very elevated and pedantic; there are elements of irony that make the tone humorous. The situational irony occurs when the speaker trades his raccoon coat to his roommate in exchange for his roommate's girl, but by the end of the story the girl picks the speaker's roommate because she likes his raccoon coat. The mode of discourse Shulman uses is narrative dialogue. This makes the narrative a lot more fun and easy to read, which helps the audience stay focused while processing all of the pedantic diction.
Another way the humor is presented in the narrative is by showing the speaker's intellect, which leads to the humor because he is trying to logically find a perfect girlfriend. The speaker's intellect is shown through allusions. He references Pygmalion, a play where a linguistics professor tries to make a poor girl pass for a duchess by improving her language skills, and eventually falls in love with her. This relates to Love is a Fallacy, because the speaker is trying to teach his girlfriend to be smart. To describe the speaker, Shulman uses his roommate, Petey, as the speaker's foil character. Shulman does this to highlight how intellectual the speaker is, and how he differs from other people his age when it comes to dating.
Works Cited
Shulman, Max. "Love Is a Fallacy." Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Another way the humor is presented in the narrative is by showing the speaker's intellect, which leads to the humor because he is trying to logically find a perfect girlfriend. The speaker's intellect is shown through allusions. He references Pygmalion, a play where a linguistics professor tries to make a poor girl pass for a duchess by improving her language skills, and eventually falls in love with her. This relates to Love is a Fallacy, because the speaker is trying to teach his girlfriend to be smart. To describe the speaker, Shulman uses his roommate, Petey, as the speaker's foil character. Shulman does this to highlight how intellectual the speaker is, and how he differs from other people his age when it comes to dating.
Works Cited
Shulman, Max. "Love Is a Fallacy." Web. 13 Oct. 2015.